FALL 2018 UNDERGRADUATE FLYER

UNDERGRADUATE ENGLISH FLYER

FALL 2018

ENG. 2060: Study of American Literature (73222)
*MAY COUNT FOR DIVISION III*
MR 10:40 – 12:05 PM
Dr. John Lowney
This course is an introduction to selected American writers and literary movements, with an emphasis on 20th– century literary texts that are concerned with U.S. national and international history.  It will take a comparative approach to texts, writers and cultures within the United States, drawing connections between literature and its various contexts: historical, social, political, religious, philosophical, etc. In particular, the course will stress the ways that cultural mythologies concerning gender, race, and class have affected both the writing of literature and the formation of literary traditions.  Readings will include F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby; Willa Cather, My Ántonia; Toni Morrison, Song of Solomon; Thomas King, Green Grass, Running Water; Chang-rae Lee, Native Speaker; Sandra Cisneros, Woman Hollering Creek; and Paule Marshall, The Fisher King.

 

ENG. 2200: Reading and Writing for English Majors (75052)
MR 10:40 – 12:05 PM
Dr. Kathleen Lubey
This course will acquaint students with what it means to read and to write as an English major. It will be our concern throughout the semester to read representative texts from major genres of literatures in English and to develop adeptness at seeing how texts create meaning through both formal and thematic means. The other major focus of the course will be to express these insights in writing. Through regular critical writing assignments, we will develop the skills that are central to literary analysis: locating textual evidence of your claims, quoting exemplary passages, “close reading” quotations, and utilizing conceptual literary terminology—the special tools, in other words, of our discipline. We also will become familiar with major resources for research in our discipline. Evaluation will be based on several papers, a mid-term, a final, and class participation, which will involve class discussion, small group work, and peer review of classmates’ writing.


ENG. 2200: Reading and Writing for English Majors (75054)
TF  1:50 – 3:15 PM
Dr. Robert Forman
Our course will introduce beginning English majors to the varied approaches one finds in modern literary criticism. Formalism, New Criticism, psychoanalytic criticism, Marxist criticism, Reader-Response, Structuralism and Deconstruction as well as more recent emphases on culture-based methods like Feminist, Post-Colonial, Gender and Queer Theory, and Critical Race Theory will serve as tools against which we will analyze a variety of prose texts.

 

In the second half of the semester we will turn to poetry and look particularly at figurative language and meters.  Students will acquire a working knowledge of figurative terms as well as of the most commonly used meters.

 

Finally, we will discuss both traditional and digital research methods and conclude with a research exercise based on the student’s choice of one of the works discussed during the term.

ENG. 2300: Introduction to Literary Criticism and Theory (75066)
MR 9:05 – 10:30 AM
Dr. Raj Chetty
This course will introduce students to literary theories and theories that have been and continue to be influential for literary studies. Rather than an attempt to cover all theorists, the course will offer an opportunity to begin to engage these theories, their key concepts, and their key thinkers, as preparation for deeper engagement in subsequent English major courses. We will draw from major theoretical movements in literary studies, in addition to reading selected key theorists of from movements. Such theories include, in broad strokes, cultural studies, Marxist literary studies, gender and sexuality studies, Black and diaspora studies, poststructuralism, anticolonial and postcolonial literary theory, performance studies, and psychoanalysis. In the latter portion of the course, we will read Joseph Conrad’s novella, Heart of Darkness, and Claudia Rankine’s multi-genre book, Citizen: An American Lyric, both of which engage a variety of theoretical concepts and produce important theoretical insights themselves.

 

ENG. 2300: Introduction to Literary Criticism and Theory (75068)
MR 3:25 – 4:50 PM
Dr. Elda Tsou
This course is an undergraduate introduction to the major thinkers in literary or critical theory. Our texts will draw from a range of disciplines: among them, literary criticism, linguistics, philosophy, history and sociology. We will be paying special attention to how these thinkers question and challenge the conventional thinking of their day, however varied their specific objects of study may be. Since theory has a bad albeit warranted reputation for being difficult, obscure, and intimidating, our goal will be to understand the central ideas and key concepts of theory so that they may help us think more critically in our everyday lives.

 

ENG. 3130: Shakespeare: Elizabethan Plays (75062)
Will and Kit
*DIVISION I*
TF 9:05 – 10:30 AM
Dr. Steven Mentz
The one-season wonder 2017 TNT series “Will” featured the ambitious young Shakespeare testing himself against decadent rock-star Christopher “Kit” Marlowe. Also in 2017, the latest edition of the Oxford Complete Works argued that Marlowe and Shakespeare may have collaborated together on some early plays. Marlowe’s death in a bar fight in 1593 cut short any further collaboration, but as this course shows, many of Shakespeare’s Elizabethan plays and poems engage with his popular and controversial predecessor. We’ll read plays and poems by these two poet-dramatists in pairs. Probable Shakespeare-Marlowe pairings include “Hero and Leander” with “Venus and Adonis”; Tamburlaine with Henry V; Doctor Faustus with A Midsummer Night’s Dream; Edward II with Richard II; and The Jew of Malta with The Merchant of Venice.

 

ENG. 3190: Special Topics in Renaissance Literature (75065)
Poetry and Imitation
*DIVISION I*
TF 12:15-1:40 PM
Dr. Steven Mentz

This hybrid literary history and creative writing course explores and participates in the culture of imitation characteristic of Renaissance lyric poetry. Each week, we’ll divide our time between reading works by four major early modern English poets and writing our own poetic imitations of their modes and techniques. We will read deeply in the literary careers four important Renaissance poets. The first pair will comprise Sir Philip Sidney, perhaps the most celebrated Elizabethan courtier-poet, paired with his niece, Lady Mary Wroth, one of the first English women to publish substantially under her own name. The second pair will juxtapose the works of Margaret Cavendish, poet, scientist, and philosopher, with the poems of the courtier-turned-cleric John Donne. For each poet, we’ll combine literary and historical analysis of poems with creative imitations written and workshopped by our students. This course is recommended for Creative Writing minors as well as anyone interested in poetry.

ENG. 3240: Romantic Literature (75064)
*DIVISION II*
TF 12:15 – 1:40 PM
Dr. Gregory Maertz
Major examples of English Romantic poetry, prose fiction, and theory will be examined in the context of contemporary politics, philosophy, ​and the fine arts. Readings and discussion will focus on dominant themes of the period (c. 1790-1830), including liberal reform and conservative reaction, the social and legal status of women, the abolitionist movement and imperialism, nature and urbanization, formal innovation and literary revivalism, ​and the emergence of Horror and the Gothic as central Romantic genres. Featured authors will include William Blake, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, William Wordsworth, Lord Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Mary Shelley, and John Keats.

ENG. 3250: Victorian Literature (75051)
*DIVISION II*
MR 12:15 – 1:40 PM
Dr. Amy King
The Victorian age (1838-1901) in England is defined by the stability of a sixty-three year reign by Queen Victoria, but the period was anything but monotonous.  The period is marked by enormous social change, technological innovation, imperial rule, and urbanization. Like our own society, Britain in the Victorian age was an urban industrial society— indeed the first in history— and subject to its own form of shock from information overload and technological change.  Our own middle-class, economic, mobile, complex and interwoven world, increasingly urbanized and organized, was first described and mapped in this period— hence, perhaps, our moment’s continuing interest in the literature of the period. The course will take in a number of genres, including Victorian poetry, journalism, science, and children’s literature, with a particular focus on the period’s dominant genre: the novel.  We will consider a number of economic and social contexts, such as the modern city, industrialism, the newly powerful factors of advertising, the newspaper, transportation, social mobility, empire, and labor and humane reform. We will also consider intellectual contexts of the Victorian age, especially the thought of Malthus and Darwin and the particular influence of science and philosophical pessimism. Our largest intellectual task will be to explore the ways in which these texts mark the complex inauguration of our own modern consciousness:  this will be our theme, tracked through various texts, various genres, and various geographical sites (including London, the suburbs, the country, and the empire).

 

ENG. 3390: Special Topics in Cultural Studies: Modernization and Tradition (75057)
*DIVISION III*
MR 9:05 – 10:30 AM
Dr. Granville Ganter
This class will examine some key texts in the American discourse of modernization, ranging from Ben Franklin to Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Black Elk. Modernization tends to emphasize technological development over philosophy (ie: modernity, or modernism) and the United States is often cited as one of the engines of technological development that brought commercial prosperity to the world. Much of early American literature and culture was shaped by, and reflective of the modernization of expressive technology, such as Ben Franklin’s prose, Sarah Parton’s columns, or Walt Whitman’s poetry, and we will study that trajectory. Although western historians and social scientists tend to celebrate modernization, this course will also examine that discourse critically. We will also read some critical articles on the modernization of print media from the nineteenth century to our contemporary period.

 

ENG. 3460: Contemporary Drama (75063)
*DIVISION IV*
MR 3:25 – 4:50 PM
Dr. Scott Combs
This course examines English-language plays written since the mid-twentieth century, focusing on social, political, historical questions as well as those of gender, sexuality, and performance.


ENG./CLS. 3500: Classical Greek and Latin Literature (75061)
TF 9:05 – 10:40 AM
Dr. Robert Forman
Students unfamiliar with Greek and Roman literature will be surprised to discover the degree to which antiquity has influenced popular modern works.  With this in mind, we will read selections from Homeric and Vergilian epic, erotic and neoteric poetry of Catullus and Martial, the social satires of Juvenal, and finish the term with the bawdy Satyricon of Petronius and the Golden Ass (or Metamorphoses) of Lucius Apuleius.  Though neither the Petronius nor the Apuleius works are novels, they come close to what might be classed as picaresque since they feature rogues, witches, and assorted scoundrels.

 

ENG. 3590: Literature & The Other Arts (75083)
The Makings and Consumption of Lemonade
*DIVISION IV*
TF 10:40 – 12:05 PM
Dr. LaToya Sawyer
In 2016, Beyoncé released her second visual album Lemonade. The project, which has been called a meditation on contemporary Black womanhood, can be viewed as a part of her personal evolution and response to feminist critiques of her first visual album Beyoncé. This course will explore the theoretical, rhetorical, and literary frameworks of Black feminism present in Lemonade by situating the project in the context of canonical and contemporary Black feminist literature, film, and digital media. We will analyze Lemonade and other “texts,” such as Alice Walker’s The Color Purple, Julie Dash’s Daughters of the Dust, and Warsan Shire’s poetry to better understand the intersections of race, gender, sexuality, and geography in the expressions of Black womanhood and how they have evolved over time.


ENG. 3690:  Special Topics in Literature and Culture (75058)
Introduction to Performance Studies
*DIVISION IV*
MR 10:40 – 12:05 PM
Dr. Shanté Paradigm Smalls

This course introduces students to the field of performance studies. Performance in this context is not just what happens “on stage,” but also what happens in the classroom, on social media, TV, film, on the sports field, in politics, business, daily life, and ritual. We will investigate what it is “to perform” as we focus on four key areas: social media/new media, racial performance, gender performance, and sexuality as performance. This class is targeted at students interested in the intersections of aesthetics, media, communication, literature, social movements, embodiment, and rhetoric.

 

ENG. 3710: Introduction To Creative Writing (71268)
*COUNTS FOR WRITING MINOR*
5:00 – 7:50 PM
Prof. Tom Philipose
This introductory creative writing workshop will focus on your writing and your thoughts (that means you will be writing a lot). We will explore the creative aspects of fiction, non-fiction, poetry, poetic-prose, and (screen)playwriting. We will use texts from various genres/media as guides for discovery of what your writing voice/style can be. You will be expected to attend public readings and performances (off campus and on your own time), and you will be urged to submit some of your work for possible publication in the SJU Literary Journal, Sequoya.

We will not rely on the thoughts/styles/critiques of others (outside of this workshop) to help us become careful readers and diligent writers. An experimental and non-traditional approach will be encouraged to help elicit fresh, unique work that reflects the individual writers in our workshop. The majority of our classwork will entail reading and discussing your writing (you will read and write in—and outside of—every class every week). You will receive feedback in class and via one-to-one meetings (outside of the workshop) that we will arrange to fit your schedule. 

 

ENG. 3720: Creative Writing: Non-Fiction (75056)
*COUNTS FOR WRITING MINOR*
TF 12:15 – 1:40 PM
Professor Catina Bacote
In this course, students will learn to approach creative nonfiction writing as a mode of expression and also as a way of seeing—a means to access and understand the world around them. They will practice the writer’s gaze in their everyday lives and note the things that strike them as interesting, from an overheard conversation to a fragment of graffiti. Ultimately, they will give themselves over to their curiosities and obsessions and channel those impulses into riveting essays. To guide their writing, they will read a variety of nonfiction, such as lyric essays, documentary poetics, memoir, travelogue, oral histories, and immersion writing. They will catalog the craft choices writers make and learn how to recreate the past with authenticity. As a supportive writing community, we will give and receive feedback on ongoing creative work and delve into the ethical considerations that come into play when writing from real life experiences. Students do not need any prior experience with creative nonfiction to take this course.

 

ENG. 3730: Poetry Writing Workshop (75067)
*COUNTS FOR WRITING MINOR*
TF 10:40 – 12:05 PM
Professor Lee Ann Brown
This is a workshop in which students will explore and develop their own poetry writing practices individually and collaboratively, as well as practice active listening and support for others in the group. We will explore what it means to be poet here and now by looking at examples of past and present poetic practice, then trying our hand at various approaches to the art of poetry.

Requirements include practice with traditional and experimental poetic forms, a willingness to engage in collaborative reading, writing and roundtable discussion. Students should complete weekly readings in contemporary poetry and poetics, and practice weekly writing and revision of individual poems and essays on poetry and poetics which will culminate in mid-semester and final portfolios. 

Requited readings and public events will be announced on first day of class, and will be updated throughout the semester. Students are responsible for a mid-semester portfolio of seven new poems and a final portfolio of thirteen poems plus a poetics essay. These poems will be written form and  in response to in-class exercises and experiments, as well in-class presentations. Participation is a key part of the course and may include fieldtrips to local poetry and art venues as well as possibilities for community engagement. No prior experience with poetry writing is required.

 

ENG. 3740: Creative Writing: Fiction Workshop (75060)
*COUNTS FOR WRITING MINOR*
MR 12:15 – 1:40 PM
Professor Gabriel Brownstein
This is an introduction to writing stories, and to considering fiction from the point of view of the writer.  Students will explore their language and their imaginations first in a set of storytelling exercises and then in original short stories. As we work on our own fiction, we’ll read some great writers, and these writers’ works will help us imagine and discuss our own.  Our readings will be quite varied—Margaret Atwood, Donald Barthelme, Anton Chekhov, Ralph Ellison, Jhumpa Lahiri, Vladimir Nabokov, Grace Paley, and Octavio Paz—and will be gathered around a single theme: haunting.  We’ll read stories about things that cannot be named.  


ENG. 3810: The History of Silent Film (75059)
*DIVISION IV*
MR 10:40 – 12:05 PM
Dr. Scott Combs
This course provides an intensive introduction to the history of silent film from the late nineteenth-century until the early sound era of the late 1920s.  We will focus on the development of film aesthetics and the institutionalization of industrial practices, mainly in the US and Europe. We should resist the temptation of reading silent cinema as a “primitive” form compared to modern movies.  Instead, we will try to understand the distinct aesthetic possibilities and modes of address contained within these films, a task more challenging and rewarding. Screenings will include films by Edison, Lumière, Méliès, Griffith, Lang, Murnau, Eisenstein, and Vertov.

ENG. 4991: Seminar in British Literature (75055)
Cultures of Sexuality in Eighteenth-Century Britain
SENIOR SEMINAR
MR 9:05 – 10:30 AM
Dr. Kathleen Lubey
In eighteenth-century England, married couples didn’t share bedrooms, and physical attraction often didn’t factor into marriage arrangements. People had sex in taverns, on the street, in brothels, in carriages. Marriage didn’t entail monogamy (for men). Rape was a crime rarely reported, and almost never prosecuted. Chastity was paramount for women, and yet they used sex toys and practiced non-penetrative sex before marriage. Heterosexuality didn’t necessarily exclude same-sex desire. All of these practices were written about openly, and this course will explore this varied terrain, attentive to eighteenth-century sexuality’s divergences from our modern assumptions that sex is (typically) a private, moralized affair that reflects a person’s will and identity. The course will draw on the skills you’ve developed through the major, and particularly the theoretical methods of English 2300. Students will undertake focused, independent research in conjunction with our collective readings for class; actively participate in discussion; and, ideally, have genuine curiosity about the subject matter. In almost every class meeting, we will discuss both primary texts and secondary scholarship. Criticism will include work by Michel Foucault, Thomas Laqueur, Henry Abelove, Eve Sedgwick,and Susan Lanser. Primary readings will include texts by the Earl of Rochester, Daniel Defoe, Eliza Haywood, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, Bernard Mandeville, Samuel Richardson, and John Cleland, as well as anonymous texts; a few will be read in their original eighteenth-century printings. Evaluation will be based on participation, several short writing assignments, and a 12-15 page seminar paper.

ENG. 4994: Seminar in Themes/Genres (73638)
Schools and Schooling
SENIOR SEMINAR
MR 10:40 – 12:05 PM
Dr. Dohra Ahmad
The focus of this capstone senior seminar is on literary depictions of K-12 education. We will read fiction, poetry, and possibly drama from the nineteenth century to the present that dramatizes (most often from a critical point of view) students’ encounters with schools. Historical and theoretical documents will help us situate those literary depictions within the structures of colonialism, racial formation, class stratification, and linguistic discrimination that school systems often support. Primary authors may include Chinua Achebe, Sherman Alexie, Patrick Chamoiseau, Charles Dickens, Brian Friel, Jamaica Kincaid, Sapphire, Zadie Smith, Lee Tonouchi, and William Wordsworth; theorists could include Louis Althusser, Paulo Freire, bell hooks, Ivan Illich, Carmen Kynard, Gauri Viswanathan, and Carter G. Woodson; student responsibilities will definitely include ongoing writing responses, a work-in-progress presentation, and an independent final project.

 

*WITH PERMISSION OF CHAIR ONLY*

 

ENG. 4903: Internship In English (71714) 3 CREDITS

ENG. 4906: Internship In English (71467) 6 CREDITS
ENG. 4953: Independent Study (71469)